SIMPLEX Revolutions: From Recording to the Analysis and Visualisation of Archaeological Data

In this paper, given in Greek at the annual review of the archaeological work of the University of Cyprus, postdoctoral researcher Charis Paraskeva presents the technical methodology of the SIMPLEX project. Running for two years, SIMPLEX is a system designed for the management, analysis, and visualisation of archaeological pottery data. At the time of the talk, the database held ceramological and archaeometric records for roughly 8,100 sherds and 2,500 photographs with metadata, alongside reference entries for ware types, vessel shapes, surface treatments, and clay fabrics.

Paraskeva explains how the database is built in Microsoft Access to feed directly into analytical software such as Excel, Minitab, SPSS, and ArcGIS via OLEDB connections and query tables, avoiding manual data cleaning. As a first case study, he tests whether Munsell slip colours on Bronze Age sherds from Alaminos-Kampos vary across clay fabric groups. The resulting charts show that subgroups of fabric group A share identical red slips inside and out, whereas groups B and C display a wider, browner range, suggesting differences in chronology, firing temperatures, stylistic choice, or import status.

The second part of the talk demonstrates statistical and spatial visualisations generated from the Xeros Valley survey material. Paraskeva shows a treemap of the entire assemblage dominated by Late Roman wares, alongside smaller Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Medieval quantities. Bar charts isolate a small Late Roman site with earlier Iron Age and Hellenistic activity in survey area 7, and break down Bronze Age wares across ten trenches at Alaminos-Kampos, where Early and Middle Bronze Age Red Polished ware predominates alongside north- and south-coast imports. A dendrogram of portable XRF results on Late Roman sherds contrasts homogeneous fine wares with local coarse wares that split into three distinct fabric subgroups. GIS maps then plot sherd counts, per-hectare densities, and Getis-Ord Gi* hot-spot analyses across the Xeros Valley, as well as weighted average sherd thickness at Alaminos-Kampos to locate pithos storage or production areas.

Finally, Paraskeva outlines how SIMPLEX generates daily work logs, storage inventories, and sample lists, and describes a photogrammetry workflow using Agisoft Photoscan, Meshmixer, Blender, and MeshLab to create 3D models of thirty selected objects (three completed so far) with one-millimetre accuracy, embedded directly into the database interface as 3D PDFs.